I must say they did everything right in the way they handled me … a month in advance notice, numerous reminders and documents explaining the agenda, objectives, transportation, etc. I’m usually very hard to please regarding these things. Well believe me I could not say a bad word, not one, regarding the whole process from start to end. I quite honestly have never been better handled since I’ve became an Alumnus. It reminded me of an older similar experience.

I’ve had two things to prepare, a “Video’s in presentations” learning circle and a “Presentation skills” training. I knew I had to prepare these trainings as people from Dale Carnegie, real good trainers would be delivering there and I felt I had to live up to the expectations. It felt really good doing research and preparing my trainings, the Power Point actually Keynote presentation. It was reminding me of the old times :), nights spent preparing, the joy of delivering, the satisfaction of doing a good job.

Once arrived in Satic, after a bumpy road via Pitesti, I was put aback of the huge expectations build by Nico and the other NTT members regarding the external trainers. It was a bit like: “Say hello to the training gurus … the externals!”. Trust me it takes a lot to shake my self confidence, and this almost made it. Fortunately I had the evening learning circle prepared and my training was scheduled for the next day. I’ve made a point of getting to know these guys (in my own special way of course). I’ve managed to get the idea of what my target audience was by observing them at the sessions and evening plenary. I say it again but it is AMAZING how AIESEC manages to bring so many good, young people in one place.

Meeting Andrei from Dale Carnegie was like going back in time. I’ve last seen him when he left AIESEC 2 years ago and he was unchanged. He’s been a great guy back then, helping me out a lot when I most needed it.

The evening learning circle was a blast … didn’t knew that people were not so into integrating videos in their presentations. Videos can be a very powerful way to get your own message trough. I’ve been doing this for 3-4 years an have a somewhat big collection that helped me a lot that evening.

The morning training went out great with a minor glitch at the end. Foreseeable tough. I will listen to my inner voice … you should do that too. Whenever you feel something is not right … well then act up on it! Don’t expect it to work out fine. I won’t :). I’ve managed to perform up to standards (mine at least), by being really passionate and getting into the right mood. I felt really good (sorry for repeating myself), to be a trainer again, to be in the middle of all those bright people. It is one the things I loved most in AIESEC. You can download the presentation here.

Getting to meet Dani again was another good reason for me being there. We did some catching up and he also came up with an original roll call we performed which helped a bit to lower our semi-gods statute there.

Overall it was an incredible experience just as in old times. I enjoyed it a lot. I love teaching young people, I like watching them grow, it is in my blood. This will most probably make me do a 180 degrees turn somewhere in the future.

Hopefully you reached this line. It’s a rather long post :)
The Lion.

I never missed an LTS but this year it was really close. I’m glad I didn’t. It took some skill to convince my brother to drive 200km :). The drive there was nerve wreaking because of the poor quality of the road, tight turns and icy road. We arrived in the evening right in time for the Alumni session. I don’t think we’ve been so many ever. We talked from the heart about old times about the beginnings, challenges and advice. We definitely did our magic there. Afterwards all of us went to find a suitable place to try out the beautiful layer of snow that had just fallen down that evening and spent 3 good hours, riding downhill on plastic bags, banners or whatever we could get :).

The second day we jumped in the car and went to see the only surviving glacier in Romania at a cave called Sc?ri?oara. After a nasty 4km ride we had to go on by foot. On the way we stopped now and then to make photos. In the end it was all worth it.

The cave was amazing and started with a 200m vertical drop. Once inside the time stopped. The glacier formed weird people like shapes and the temperature never varies more than 2 degrees (+-1 C). We made some pictures capturing a small fraction of this majestic cave. For me it was a new and mind blowing experience. It was my first time in a cave. It reminded me of the adventurous stories I’ve read as a young boy: Tom Sawyer, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Ciresarii.

It’s been a while since I felt that excited. On the way back I managed to catch up with Razvan and after a while failed miserably trying to sing something together :).

Once we reached the car and headed back to the village, we stopped at a nice cheap “restaurant” where we had some vine a real good meal. It felt really good being with them there, chatting about nothing important and laughing our heads off. These are the moments that stay with you for a long time.

Thank you guys,
The Lion.

As you may have noticed I traveled a lot this year and to conclude my voyages, earlier this month I spent almost a week in Istanbul, Turkey. This was the first trip ever abroad together with my work colleagues. The main purpose of the voyage was a Cisco Networking Academy conference, but somewhere on the way I’ve made some adjustments :).

Once I debarked the plane in Istanbul I realized I had a an absolutely wrong mindset about Turkey. It’s so different from any country I visited so far. During the days spent in Istanbul, I tried to cover as much as I could of this wonderful city. This city is unique. It’s the only city in the world that spreads over two continents. I’ve visited the Mosques, the old and new parts of the city, toured on the Bosporus, got lost, spent huge amounts of money shopping, made full use of my negotiation skills, ate the best food ever and chilled out at the river side.

The hotel we checked in wasn’t much but I enjoyed every morning a breath-taking view from the top floor of the Marmara Sea. As we arrived two days earlier we had enough time to see some of the most beautiful parts of this huge city.

The very first thing we visited were the mosques. The Blue Mosque is an impressive piece of architecture centered around my favorite color: blue. For the first time in my life, I entered (bare foot) in a mosque. It kind of gave me a better understanding of Islamic culture and religion. Although I’m not a religious person I learned to respect others beliefs than my own.

Saint Sophia Mosque was tough the most interesting of the two. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the city was conquered and the Saint Sophia church was turned into a mosque. All Christian signs were brutally removed from the walls, the walls were over painted with in white, mosaics were destroyed. The scars are still very visible at every step. With the building of the Blue Mosque, Saint Helena has been turned into a museum, and nowadays a lot of effort is put into restoring some of the original paintings and mosaics.

The streets of Istanbul are turned into a huge bazaar during the day, where you can find anything you may think of. From spices to food, clothing or electric appliances. And for everything you have to bargain. From what I’ve experienced, foreigners step out easily from the crowd, and as a result the first price you get is up to 7 times higher than the right price. If your negotiation skills are good you can buy almost everything at a very good price. These people love to bargain and it’s amazing on how friendly and happy they are at the end of a good deal.

The infrastructure is among of the best I saw for a city this large. Of course you have to be mad to drive a car in Istanbul … there are no rules.

Riding on a boat on the Bosporus is a thing you shouldn’t miss if you go to Istanbul. I love the water, the peacefulness and the beauty of the riversides. If you can get a ride in the middle of the night, It’s a feeling you’ll never forget.

On the first day of the conference, we got lost and walked a lot around the city. In the end we found the conference site, but the quality of the sessions and other stuff made us loose interest very quickly. Out of the whole conference, 1 or 2 sessions were worth attending. A good thing was that we got to do some networking with some of the people there and brought back some ideas worth implementing. Overall we had loads of fun but not a real good professional experience.

Among the great stuff was the Bosporus ride at night, I really can’t describe the feeling … the conference party and the meal in at a restaurant housed in a UNESCO monument, where I ate the best food in ever. I don’t like the Turkish sweets, call me crazy, but here you can eat some of the best food in the world.

Turkish people are very proud and have very strong feelings about their roots and their country. During my stay, I noticed the huge flags that are present everywhere. Although it took me a while to get used to the police and army being present everywhere, after a while it gave me an unusual good feeling of security.

Being back in Romania felt really strange. Turkey is 50 years ahead of us, we’re in the European Union, they’re not. I’m putting Istanbul on my map of beautiful cities around the world.

During this voyage I managed to get an unusual high number of photos of myself. Me me me me.

The Lion.

We checked in at a nice hotel in a small town near Venice and after a 20 minutes bus ride we were there: a big square filled with buses and cars. The place where land ended and water began. As the whole city is built on pylons over the water, the only way to get around Venice is trough its maze of narrow streets and channels. From now on we either walked or took a boat to get us from one place to another. It took us a while to get accustomed before we started to explore Venice. In the two days we would walk in and out of Venice, visit the islands and enter lots souvenir shops.

The first evening we walked a lot and visited some of the nice places including the San Marco square. After walking for a few hours and making a lot of pictures (I stopped now an then and shouted “che bella” and took a picture, completely annoying my brother during the whole process :) ), we headed back to the hotel.

The next day we were surprised to be greeted in Romanian by the cook and being asked what sort of meal should be prepared for us. After a nice breakfast we headed back into the city maze. To tell you the truth, Venice was quite disappointing by daylight: the same lack of care for the monuments and the decaying buildings as in Rome, the rats who lurked around everywhere, the garbage on the streets and the smelly water were not exactly what I imagined. Anyway, I tried to see more than meets the eye.

At noon we decided to head for the Islands and hopped in a boat to Murano. Murano was peaceful, clean and quiet. Torrents of tourists were debarking every half a hour but they got soon lost in the little streets and buildings of the Island. We walked trough the stores just to see all kinds of glass made artworks … really fascinating. The most exciting part of our tour was inside a glass factory, witnessing how glass artworks was made. I can say the speed and skill of a “Maestro” is mind blowing. From the moment he took the melted glass from the oven and the moment where a beautiful glass horse stood on the table with it’s front legs in the air, only 2-3 minutes had passed. Some hours later we returned to the city and entered once more Venice’s maze. In the evening we walked down the pier and to the beautiful public gardens. We made a lot of pictures that evening, a challenging task without a tripod.

In the morning we packed our stuff and made one final trip to the islands. The first stop was Lido. As we debarked it was like stepping into another world. The silence, the peacefulness … the grander of the big houses and city canals… Lido is the citadel of the rich, rarely bothered by the hoards of tourists that choke the streets of Venice. The panoramic view of Venice and some other islands from Lido’s shore is breathtaking. The island is connected to the mainland and has also boats carrying cars and goods to and from the highway near Venice. Here’s one of the places I would love call home (if I could afford it). It’s also the place where I found my street :). Literally.

For the next part of the journey we embarked in a ferry boat which took us near the building site of the MOSES system which once built will be able to protect the Lagoon opening to the sea. This will make Venice less vulnerable to high tides and storms that plagued the city in the past. Once we left the protection of the Lagoon we felt the power of the Adriatic sea, the high currents and winds making our engines to work harder.

Our final stop was Burano, a small island north of Venice. Burano is a copy of Venice at a much smaller scale. The city streets are here tidy and clean, the buildings are all painted in bright colors, every door and window is covered with curtains from beautiful silk canvas. We had little time to walk around as we had to catch our plane, but we were very impressed with Burano. We kept thinking: “This is how Venice should look like”.

On our way back to Venice I was silent, thinking of the past days and recalling nice memories. The ride took longer than we expected and we had to run to catch our bus back to the hotel. Two hours later we were boarding the plane back home.

I was turning back with mixed feelings about Venice. It was interesting to see a city where everything moved by water, tough there were lots of other stuff I didn’t like. I would say go and visit Venice for a day but spend double the time on the lagoons islands.

Over and out,
The Lion.

Issues
Till Friday all was done, except a little thing that slipped our mind: Gwen doesn’t know to drive a stick-shift. Imagine: in the U.S., they actually give you the driver license on an automatic shift.

So, I was teaching Gwen about the “extra” pedal called the clutch. Things started OK, on the first try Gwen actually started the windshield wipers. After a nice test ride in the city all was prepared. We went home to pack and started our journey.

Well … not quite, a few meters of the parking lot Gwen managed to place the car in the middle of the road and because being stressed and all she couldn’t manage the fine moves of the clutch and gas pedal required to get the car moving forwards. OK, we moved … in small steps, hick-ups, engine dying, engine start, car shaking, hick-ups engine dying. As this kind of movement was killing the engine, building a long queue behind us and was not getting measurable results, I had to take over and drive a few blocks to a parking area.

After refining my training techniques we managed to get the car moving and circled around the city for about 25 minutes trying to find our way to the Highway circles around Rotterdam. The trip was a nice one, I love Dutch highways … they are among the best in the world. At around 11 pm we arrived in Düsseldorf and Gwen’s friend was waiting for us with dinner laid on the table in the nice little garden behind their house.

The city
In the following 2 days we made extensive walks around the city and alongside of the Rhine. Düsseldorf has about 600.000 inhabitants but in a normal day, the city seems really small. I loved the old castle, the small houses and statues, the fountains, the city parks, the small river harbors, the seamless merge between old and new. The city host many cafes and restaurants blended into the old part of the city that gives them a special flavor and the Rhine completes the picture. It’s nice, everyone wants you as a customer and the chill atmosphere makes gives you complete relaxation.

We bought souvenirs, natural gummy candies, very good ice cream and of course the traditional bratwurst :)

As we walked on the other side of the Rhine, in some remote places small real sand beaches were available. We spent some time dipping our feet in water gathering sea shells and small rocks :).

Amusement park
On the other side of the Rhine a huge amusement park was built just for this summer, so we couldn’t resist the temptation :D.

I went on just 2 rides. The first ride was … ahem … interesting. As I was strapping myself in the seat, and the safety bar coming down I thought: “I won’t scream! I’ve already done this in an airplane.”. No sh*t! I nearly wet my pants and I screamed my head off. These people are crazy! My hands still hurt from the strong grip of the safety bar.

The Second ride was more gentle, but still stirring my insides out. I just wanted to know how it feels. Now I know. I’m not sure I will do it again.

After saying our goodbyes we were on the road again … the wrong one :D. Some turns later, we got onto the highway and the rest of the ride was smooth with no major incidents. I guess we have to thank Gwen that she didn’t manage to kill us in the process. When I look back I say to myself: “That was really stupid … and bold”. :D.

Over and out,
The Lion.

Well we got there eventually but the other party was also late. We enjoyed a smooth ride to Amsterdam Centraal mostly glancing out the windows and chatting. The city has pretty much unchanged in my eyes, except maybe for the huge number of people (mostly tourists) walking down the streets. I felt like in Bucharest … simply too crowded and too noisy. I wished I could visit some of the museums there, but our crowd was so undecided … I learned my lesson: having more than 4 people around when traveling is not a very good choice. Everyone wants to go somewhere else, everyone wants to eat something else, everyone has different ideas on how to achieve these and in the end nobody gets what he wants.

I persuaded them to go on a boat ride on the most important canals of the city and we could have finally some quality time making pictures, glancing around.

We had a nice time and made lots of pictures, but I still don’t like Amsterdam :).

In the evening, we persuaded to go and see the “Live Earth” concert. Because Martin was gone to meet his friends, we managed to get all 5 of us into a car to get there :). We managed to catch only the last part of the show, but there were live transmissions from all around the world on big screens and some other entertainment like “Silent Disco” or playing volley ball on an inflated volleyball field. You can see the Live Earth theme song on YouTube.

After all was finished we went for the train station and after a one hour and a half we dragged ourselves in the warmth of our beds.

Cheers,
The Lion.

After work we walked across town, to a bar near Erasmus Bridge. After some refreshments we were invited below, into the “classroom” :). We started with basic moves and advanced rather quickly to more advanced stuff. I must say tough it looks pretty simple, when it comes to repeat the moves yourself, it’s a whole different story. Sabine and her boyfriend are really good at this. They cracked jokes, explained everything in detail and used very cool methods to prevent us from making basic mistakes.

After 2 hours we were all deadly tired. I think I still need a lot of lessons :) but I managed for my first one. Sabine invited us to a Salsa club called “The Beach” at the “Niew Maas” river to practice what we learned.

Remember what I always told you about trying new things? Remember Titanic? Some of you might have found the movie stupid … I for one liked it and learned from it. Rose promised she will follow her dreams … and she did. She really lived her life as it were not tomorrow, she loved as she would never love again. She dies happy in the end surrounded by all her memories all the things she’s done, all the people she touched. I wish we all could go like that.

PS: No pictures this time … we were to busy getting our moves right.

Cheers,
The Lion.

Saturday it poured down all day and the sky cleared just 20 minutes before our departure. Nothing unusual in The Netherlands. Weather here changes from sunshine to heavy rain and vice-versa in just a few minutes.

Being on the Nieuwe Maas river, with my hair blowing in the strong wind the deck moving steady in the strong current and the beautiful riverside landscape passing by was dream-like. We drank some hot chocolate and hat a chat with 4 ambitious guys from Germany, trying to start AIESEC in Iran.

Kinderdjik was the place where I saw the biggest number of windmills ever. There were about 20-30 windmills (the ones I could count) standing next to each other. It was like time stopped there. Just us and the windmills, each with its sale in a different position symbolizing sorrow or happiness. The soil was damp and the air moist, just preparing for another coming rain.

The ride back was characterized by strong winds and showers. I most surely got a cold after this, but it was worth it.

Cheers,
The Lion.

On the road again … this time back to The Netherlands, a place forever in my heart.

Some time ago while I was working, an e-mail caught my attention. It was about an application for the Brand Principles Meeting in Rotterdam held by AIESEC International. Branding is a dear topic to me, as I’ve worked for one year together with Paul, for the creation and implementation of the AIESEC Romania Brand. I’ve also been a support entity for the implementation of the Global AIESEC Brand. During that year I’ve traveled a lot around the country and also had some of the most awesome experiences of my life.

So in not so many words, I decided in the last 2 hours that I must be there, just to contribute and see how the AIESEC Brand will develop.

After being confirmed as a participant, I’ve became aware, that the flight costs to Rotterdam were huge for such short notice flights. That was hectic … full of surprises … the guys from the Romanian MC found out about it, and did their best to help me (thanks guys). My family was also very supportive. At 14:00 I found out that the flight was date changed because of an Alitalia strike, and I had to be in Bucharest at the airport at 4:00 AM. I got into the last Bus at 17:00 and at 22:00 was in Bucharest.

The next day was spent in airports and trains … at 19:00 I was in Rotterdam. I got to see Gee again :) unchanged. In the coming days we’ve had lots of sessions and arguments but in the end it paid off. Michelle was amazing good prepared and helpful … we’ve managed to come up with some very cool and exciting stuff (that still needs polishing, of course). In the picture bellow you can see the “beta” version of the new brand essence.

I had little chance to see Rotterdam again, but managed to attend some team dinners and spend time with the guys there. Let’s say I’ve had also some quality weed … ah … correction, quality time with Gee and Cornelia [evil grin]. During one of the evenings while playing pool with the IS team, me and Gee winning, Kiko (who is a very determined individual) convinced me to come back for another month to work for AI, but this is a story for the next post :).

I spent only one week there, but re-accommodating was an issue, back to Romania … it’s not that I don’t like it, it’s about little things like infrastructure and people.

I managed to see Raluca and Sorinel as I was taking the train back to Sibiu. I always like to do that, it’s important to make time for the people you care about :). And this concludes my post for tonight … stay tuned. Bellow are some pictures from high above the clouds:

The Lion.

I don’t know where to begin. It’s my first business trip abroad. How this all started? Well it’s kinda’ complicated to explain it all. The main idea is that myself and my boss got involved in a knowledge exchange between Salzburg University and “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu. The University payed for plane tickets from Sibiu to Munchen, from where we had to take a train to Salzburg. We stayed at a very nice old professor for about 5 days. I can’t say I’ve seen much of Germany but I managed to see a lot of Salzburg.

It stroke me how similar Salzburg to Sibiu was! The same narrow streets, same small two stores houses, same tall fortifications. The difference was that it’s maintained, and is has a very good infrastructure. Every single corner is used, everything has a purpose, everything is centered around tourists. The people of this small city simply know how to attract tourists from all over the world. I simply loved the attention they payed to small details like lighting, the cute shops or the funny graveyard. I was also impressed about the huge tunnel carved right in the heart of the mountain connecting the two parts of the city and the cool relaxed atmosphere all around the city.

In the coming days, I’ve visited the recruitment office of the University of Salzburg and also had a meeting in Graz with the Technical University there. I was amazed of the systems they run there where everything is student centered, centralized and starting with this year paperless. Every student has a smart-card trough which he can do everything from paying his studies and printing his grade book to accessing the local library. We’ve managed to establish some contacts at both universities and also brought a lot of ideas home. We’re like 100 years behind … but I’m sure we can cover some of this distance.

I’ve been keeping this for the end … remember the old professor I’ve been mentioning at the beginning of my post, well he was one of the nicest person I’ve ever met, and I’m sure we caused a degree of discomfort staying and living with him these 5 days. He never said anything about it and also payed for meals, snacks, museum tickets, everything … he didn’t let us pay for anything … but wait … that’s not everything! It turned out that he was a pilot! He took on a ride at 10.000 ft. round the alps in a small 4 seater Cessna aircraft. It was so cool for me to fly again. It’s been 6 years since I stopped flying and I still miss it every day. It was like a dream come true.

To conclude this post, it’s been the 4th visit to Austria and my second visit to Graz and I think I’ll be going back someday.

Cheers,
The Lion.